Ruth 1:20
But she said to them: Call me not Noemi, (that is, beautiful,) but call me Mara, (that is, bitter,) for the Almighty hath quite filled me with bitterness.
Open Ruth 1:20 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Quibus ait : Ne vocetis me Noëmi (id est, pulchram), sed vocate me Mara (id est, amaram), quia amaritudine valde replevit me Omnipotens.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- καὶ εἶπεν πρὸς αὐτάς Μὴ δὴ καλεῖτέ με Νωεμείν, καλέσατέ με Πικράν, ὅτι ἐπικράνθη ἐν ἐμοὶ ὁ ἱκανὸς σφόδρα.
- Hebrew (WLC)
- וַתֹּ֣אמֶר אֲלֵיהֶ֔ן אַל תִּקְרֶ֥אנָה לִ֖י נָעֳמִ֑י קְרֶ֤אןָ לִי֙ מָרָ֔א כִּי הֵמַ֥ר שַׁדַּ֛י לִ֖י מְאֹֽד
Haydock's commentary
That is. The explanations are added by St. Jerome. (Haydock)
Noemi had formerly a husband and two sons, with great riches, of which she was now deprived. (Worthington)
From Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859, in the transcription made by Todd Easton and kept online by John Paul Wohlschied at johnblood.gitlab.io/haydock.
The Fathers on this verse
St Gregory the Great Register of the Epistles of St. Gregory the Great, To Narses, Patrician
In describing loftily the sweetness of contemplation, you have renewed the groans of my fallen state, since I hear what I have lost inwardly while mounting outwardly, though undeserving, to the topmost height of rule. Know then that I am stricken with so great sorrow that I can scarcely speak; for the dark shades of grief block up the eyes of my soul. Whatever is beheld is sad, whatever is thought delightful appears to my heart lamentable. For I reflect to what a dejected height of external advancement I have mounted in falling from the lofty height of my rest. And, being sent for my faults into the exile of employment from the face of my Lord , I say with the prophet, in the words, as it were of destroyed Jerusalem, He who should comfort me hath departed far from me ( Lam. i. 16 ). …
St Gregory the Great Register of the Epistles of St. Gregory the Great, To Narses the Patrician
Your most sweet Charity has said much to me in your letters in praise of my good deeds, to all which I briefly reply, Call me not Noemi, that is beautiful; but call me Mara, that is bitter; for I am full of bitterness ( Ruth i. 20 ).
St Gregory the Great Book IX, To Leander, Bishop of Hispalis (Seville)
I have the epistle of thy Holiness, written with the pen of charity alone. For what the tongue transferred to the paper had got its tincture from the heart. Good and wise men were present when it was read, and at once their bowels were stirred with emotion. Everyone began to seize thee in his heart with the hand of love, for that in that epistle the sweetness of thy disposition was not to be heard, but seen. All severally were inflamed, and all admired, and the very fire of the hearers shewed what had been the ardour of the speaker. For, unless torches burn themselves, they will not kindle others. We saw, then, with how great charity thy mind was aflame, seeing that it so kindled others also. Your life indeed, which I always remember with great reverence, they did not know; but the loftiness of your heart was manifest to them from the lowliness of your language. …